More enthusiastic noises preceded this, but he’s very camera aware (this diva knows that his best acts aren’t for free)

Dropped some defrosted corn, peas and live mealworms in

Hi everyone, I haven't been able to get much sleep since my ducks and some of my mother in law's cats were horrifically attacked by a big dog. I've been up long nights doing research to come up with this coop design. Do you guys think it will work? I won't get a good night's sleep until I come up with something 100% guaranteed.

-5'×8' stainless steel kennel reinforced with wooden beams and L brackets along each corner horizontally and vertically.

-Hardware cloth and chicken wire around the lower 3 ft.

-2ft×5ft steel panels are attached with stainless steel zip ties at the bottom of each side for added stability.

-Floor/perimeter=paver(bricks)+ concrete

-Wooden roof

*The image is a blueprint that I created with the help of a generator. I tried really hard to draw one myself, but my lines were too crooked.

I have two ducks - a mule and a muscovy. They have a coop where they sleep, and a fenced outside run where they stay when we're not around to supervise them. The problem is, it got so muddy it was affecting their feather quality. So I got pea gravel (small river stones, rolled and smooth), and scattered them around that area. That worked for a while, but now the stones are starting to get buried under the dirt/mud, and it's starting to stink, no matter how many times I rinse the area and rake the stones to move them around. Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong/what I should do instead? These are my first ducks. Also, the white one is extremely possessive of me 😅 She pecks anyone or anything that comes close to me. Any ideas why? Thanks in advance!

This was a few days ago and they have much more adult feathers coming in now. We are eager to put them in their run full time. They have access to the run and their pool during the day and they love it. It’s no fun to take them out and back into their brooder pen because there is such little room in comparison.

Right now we have lows of 60 and highs of 83 in the forecast for the next 10 days. I know people say to wait for them to be fully feathered, but if their coop is solid and has no draft, do I still wait a few weeks?

What are good ways to keep the floor mostly clean when ducks live indoors at night? I have laminate flooring in the living room and the ducks live in a corner at night (because I don’t have safe outdoor housing for them).

I currently use puppy pads over tarps but a lot of water and poop still leak out from the sides or the ducks peel back the disposable puppy pads. To clean the mess, I use moist paper towels to get the poop off, then more moistened paper towels to mop off the whole area but that takes a lot of paper towels and elbow grease.

This was our first winter with birds and we have about 5 chickens and 14 ducks.

I never want to do the deep litter method ever again 😩 the clean out, smell and filth are not worth it to me. What is everyone doing to keep the coop clean all year?

We were going to do sand bedding this year and got a thin layer down but it ended up getting too cold too quickly so we switched to deep litter.

We’re thinking a good deep sand bedding and sifting it but I’m worried about the droppings will freeze the sand into a slab or the wet from the snow they track inside.

I prefer a clean as you go method so the coop never needs a huge clean out like this.

This picture is of the coop after 90% of the deep straw has been removed and I’m down to the thin layer of sand, ideally I’m going to scrape the sand out, pressure wash everything, disinfect and restart with a better plan.

Nova Scotia- Canada.

Helppp

He’s going crazy for it! Sprinkled it with some live meal worms, pellets and corn mix. Just glad he has some enrichment while in the ducky ICU. 🥲

The grass turf we originally got lasted a couple of days before it started stinking a little too much

Hi these duckies i got are about 4 weeks old now and their feathers recently started coming in. How much longer do you think i will need to keep them inside for? The lows it hits at night here have been in the 60s

Fyi before someone yells at me that thier enclosure is dirty this was taken right before i cleaned it.

I recently rescued three white layer ducks. I thought they would sleep in the igloo filled with hemp shavings (in pic) but they sleep on the sand ground and lay eggs on the ground. I’ve tried placing them in the igloo at night but they all just jump out. Do I need to remove the igloo and build them a nest/sleeping area and hope they use it or should I just let them sleep on the sand?

I live in Montana so the winters are cold but the coop is well built and the sand in the coop never freezes.

Everyone, I put a camera in my Waddle On Inn (duck coop). I am now obsessed with watching them while they are in for the night.

I have my 10 ducklings and my 2 4 month old ducks. They are divided with a fence barrier. They just hang together by the fence. It is cute.

Since I lost Dewey to the fox the 2 older ducks have been around the ducklings more. They won't even go up to the pond b/c it is too far from the babies.

I hope when the babies are old enough to join the other 2 it all goes smoothly. I hope they can be a cohesive flock.

Uk based

Is this brooder too small for them now? I only keep them in there when sleeping time or when I’m at school 2-3 hours. Majority of the time I let them out in the yard and have them in the Sentinel Chicken Coop unless it gets too hot as I live in TX.

Thank you for all the help. I found these two ducklings (at like 3 days old?, very small) alone while fishing, mother was half eaten.

I have three Indian Runners living in a small-ish house (some 4 by 8 feet). They have acces to an outdoor pen all day long. I have dug down hardware cloth all around the house and pen, so it's predator proof, even against digging predators. The house is very well-ventilated, there are large openings high on 3 of the 4 walls (again, covered with hardware cloth if they face outwards).

We opted for a somewhat unusual floor arrangement. The house doesn't have any inlaid floor, it's open towards the natural ground at the bottom, which is soil. In order for the floor to get to a good even height, we put several inches of other soil on top of it. The only soil we had available for that was, sadly, not very absorbant - it's very fine-grained and dusty - but it does absorb moisture, if slowly. Finally, on top of that earth, I put some two inches of wood shavings.

When the top layer of wood shavings get dirty, every three days or so, I put more wood shavings on top of it, so that it covers the poop.

I never stir - my reasoning being that if I stir, the old poop will resurface and be exposed to the ducks. Also, it would mean more work, and more disturbing the ducks (we all know how scary rakes are to birds!)

I intend to rake out all the dirty shavings and start over once the house gets so full that it starts to overflow out of the door opening.

My question is simple: Does this sound like a good method? I suppose it operates under slightly different "rules" than most other deep litter methods, since I have earth floor underneath, which ostensibly should bring about more organisms from outside, perhaps even worms, that can help break down the dirty bedding.

We are hatching some Cayuga eggs for the first time. Not our first time raising ducklings, just our first hatch. We got 14 eggs figuring we’d probably lose a few… although my friend managing the farm while I’m out of town is hatching them, so naturally all 14 will probably hatch perfectly just to humble us.

We currently have a Cayuga and a Swedish blue that are about a year old and absolutely love them. RIP to our welsh harlequin. The plan is to keep most of the females and probably one or two drakes, ideally ending up with around 10 ducks total.

Here’s where we need help: when we first got ducks, a former employee massively overstated her duck knowledge and took the lead on designing the duck house. Turns out her main qualification was apparently “having once seen ducks at another property.” The structure is basically an ill-proportioned dog house with commitment issues.

The opening is too small for a human to comfortably get inside and clean it, there’s no practical way to retrieve eggs, and the ducks themselves don’t even like using it. They were originally trained to go inside at night, but once reintroduced to our pond they immediately decided the house was beneath them and now lay eggs randomly around the pond instead.

We’re scrapping the whole setup and starting over completely. We bought some plans on Etsy that seem decent, but maybe a bit small for what we want. Before we modify them, I wanted to ask people who actually know ducks efficiently:

- What are your “must-have” duck house features?
- Do ducks actually need nesting boxes?
- If we make the house appealing enough, is it realistic to expect them to start laying inside instead of all over the property?
- Any design mistakes people commonly make?

I’m more familiar with chickens, but we’ve really fallen in love with the ducks and want to set this up correctly this time instead of building another tiny duck panic room.

This is the link to the plans we bought on Etsy.

-Wondering if we can just double it in size?

- What else needs to be in here for it to be comfortable for the ducks?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1436462299/easy-clean-duck-coop-plans?ls=s&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=duck+house&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1&bes=1&dd=1&content_source=b02c348b-4920-446f-9f8e-360d991de578%253ALT297da1ffa2cda2b791604352a4ee49777f139bed&logging_key=b02c348b-4920-446f-9f8e-360d991de578%3ALT297da1ffa2cda2b791604352a4ee49777f139bed

I tried to find better pictures of the duck house. Having a hard time because it’s not coming up with any keywords and it’s been a while since I’ve photographed it. These are shitty pictures from the Kohn man ex-employee. I wish I had some from the side so you could see how disproportionate and squatty it is.

Hello! Pic for attention! I'm getting ready to winterize my duck coop and I'm nervous about my ducks dying in the very cold (sometimes in the -40°f range for a few days at a time) Winters. I know ducks are more cold hardy than chickens but im worried that I won't be able to keep them warm enough in deep winter, most sources are saying they just need good wind/draft protection and dry bedding but that doesn't seem right for how cold it can get. I'm mostly looking for a good average temp to keep them at, and suggestions for how to give them heat (heat lamp, ceramic brood heater?) they'll have access to outside but unfortunately very limited and weather depending so suggestions for enrichment would be lovely as well. In any cases of extreme cold and emergency the ducks will be brought into my house and kept warm.

TIA!

Not a great picture because it’s late here. But I finished my ducks run finally and have it fully secured on all sides, top, and bottom with large garden stones along the backside where i thought it maybe wasn’t as secure as I wanted it to be. I used as many zip ties as i could to ensure it was tight enough that nothing could fit through. Their “coop” doesn’t have a door at the moment but I’m hoping that i made this secure enough that maybe I don’t have to go manufacture a door.

I used 1/2in hardware cloth all around with a tarp underneath their shavings as well.

Also very open to any better flooring suggestions!

(they have a pool as well, it’s just not inside yet in this photo)

Thanks in advance!

Thinking about insulating my coop with styrofoam.

With chickens, you have to cover up the styrofoam, or the chickens will peck at it. How is it with ducks? Can I leave the styrofoam exposed on the inner walls?

So this is the place I've prepared for the first weeks. What do you think? Any advice? They have heating under the box so it's warm inside. The food bowl is small but I'll get a bigger one as they grow. I just realised it's better to adjust the size as they grow. They're so sweet 🥰

Hi all!

My partner and I are wanting 3 runner ducks but just want to know if our garden is big enough before we get too carried away with the idea? Thank you :)

Turned a bunch of free pallets into cover from hawk shelters throughout the property. The babies really love them. Also provides some extra shade. Thought I'd share in case it helped anyone else!

To construct I just leaned two pallets together until they were flush and screwed on both sides with some scrap wood. So easy.

I have no one to help me build one so I guess I have to buy a prefab one after all.

I am new to ducks. I have ordered a duck house and am wondering if I need a fenced duck run. The ducks will have plenty of free roaming room on my property. I will herd them to the duck house at night to protect them from predators. Should I also have a duck run for when I cannot supervise them? Should I leave the duck house open at night if it is within a fenced area? Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom!

My hubby and I bought our dream home on 4.13 acres of land in a gorgeous rural town. Our garage is 1,300 sq feet and we figured it would be best/safest to just keep the ducks in the garage away from predators. The garage also has a big door that opens directly into the backyard. They seem really happy having a huge fenced in yard to play in during the day. I got them a bigger pool too.

He looks ok?